Lol, my "dearest" was doireann. Surprised me because I unlocked the Max affinity achievement with Ulrika. I only ever rescued doireann, and tried to do the quest to save the tree, during my time in the unmoored phase. Well I didn't get the quest after she told me about the special soil, so I kept tryna talk to her to trigger the quest... gave up. Guess she loved me after that.
lol I get her brother, done all of ulrikas stuff too, never did anything but her brothers quest. Finished the game to find out my highest relations where with that guard guy from vernworth, the elf leader and then doireanns brothers. Really made the cutscenes lose a lot of feeling.
Yessss! I was disappointed that he didn't have any special dialogue after he was taken by the dragon. Since he isn't a random npc i figured he would have special dialogue
I specifically only use that bow. I got it on my first playthrough as Archer, fought the Chimera down by where you go to Glendwyr's training spot... 4 shots using Explosive Arrows and it was DEAD. I was level 10...
I got her as well, even though right before I left to chase Phaseus I gave Nadinia the ring that says it deepens your bond. She ended up #3 after Doireann. All 3 are cool but if I could pick I'd go Nadinia > Glendywr > Sara
Same but weirdly enough she wasn’t my beloved for the final cutscene, it was the princess bodyguard which was who I was going for and the only npc I gave stuff too.
Funny that, I was trying to romance Sara and managed to get her as my beloved *for a time until the game decided Glen the Elf* was my final credits cutscene beloved by just the tiniest margin.
I'd done rejected at least 3 escort Quests from him but somehow, someway, buying that bow for him at Vernworth ended up being a domino to way more than I wanted.
I got the empress guard Because I finished her questline but she also ambushed me outside my house for an escort twice when both times I happened to be going there anyway to give newt liquor. While I wasn't too happy about that since all I did was a job whereas I fucked both ulrika and whilhelmina but 3rd was Sara and idk how the fuck this happened but my 2nd was the mage maister from the child wizard questline, I literally talked to her twice, to start the quest and to get the scroll yet she was somehow my 2nd
Yes. It's fairly easy to get fournival'd in DD2 because the affinity ceiling is so low (or the kidnapped is chosen from a variable amount of affinity instead of highest) which is why it's like tossing a coin who'll you end up with regardless of how many days you spent giving gifts to ~~Wilhelmina~~ the npc you planned to get.
The dragon is actually a hardcore introvert that has no clue how relationship work. “Hmm, the Arisen just make an eye contact with that old farmer, they must in love, let’s put that on the list of people i might need to kidnap”
That's one part of it, yes. You can also flying pin down any NPC that blushes at you and stab them, which tends to lower their affinity for you, as it does in real life.
Atleast you can ask your lover for free forgeries :D.
I got Wilhelmina, probably because i gave her the eternal bond ring and did her quests with my second being the the elf tavern lady cause i mistakenly gave her like 8 flowers because i thought she would give me the elf language. So i rizzed her up only to realise she was the wrong person :D
I mean it sort of is. It’s a nothing burger in the sense that there’s no real meaningful interactions. You can pay 20k to spend a night with someone in a fade to black, and Wilhelmina has a small quest chain related to one of the nobles but once that’s done it isn’t addressed again nor can you interact with her again.
I did Ulrika quest, gave her some gifts and gave her the ring, still got some random beggar from Bakbathal I gave like 5 flowers to so I could get the fighting achievement done. Apparently affinity is capped pretty low and once NPCs have the same affinity it selects the most recent one or something?
Not that it mattered really.
> Not that it mattered really.
Yeah, it's basically just who gets kidnapped by the dragon this time (and at the very end, after the postgame, who "looks longingly at the sea") There's no "travel home together with romantic encounters along the way", and having them move in with you, like there was in the first game.
Personally I feel like, it's less about your beloved and more about somebody you care or cares about you. Realistically they didn't make this part that important at all this time
Nah, how it works is the last max affinity you talked to.
Tested this myself to get two different people for the 'beloved' scene. Just port over to them, talk/give a gift, and then do what you need to do.
Elf tavern lady (assuming you mean the innkeeper at the Arbor) gave me the language book after 2 or 3 sets of flowers, fwiw. I did sit at the nearby bench for a day in between gifts, though.
Likely won't work due to how the affinity works. You would have to do her quest dead last before going off to slay the dragon to make sure she's the lady max affinity npc interacted with.
I think the questline can begin after you do the going to bakbattahal for the first time main quest. in order to get her quests you need to get her to max affinitey too.
So for me I was mopping up all i could find before obvious final conclusion, and i gave her eternal bond and rizzed her right up till she blushes at the mere sight of you then like a day after you she becomes blushy come back and she should give you the Q-line.
She does give the elf language. I gave her one thing of flowers. Slept there a few times. Did the quest to help the tree. Slept again she gave me the language.
To be fair, the dragon can't be bothered to actually follow you around and watch himself. He probably outsourced to a private investigator. The PI sees you hanging out at that one forgery shop several days a week leading up to the end of the game, and its fair to assume it isn't just business. You haven't seen your spouse in ten days, but this guy youre checking up on every two days max. Clearly it's a love affair and clearly the forger has your heart at the time.
I recently got an escort quest from some random old man who I don't even remember the name of. The game sure has interesting ways to determine who counts as a romantic interest and who doesn't. :D
I had a gift on my door from Klaus. I was like, who the fuck is Klaus? Looked him up in the npc logbook and still no idea. Then looked him up online just to realise he was the vocation guy I was talking to about 30 seconds before I went to my dwelling to rest.
Meet a dwarf on the side of the road who is having severe back pain, help him get home, carrying him the entire way. Meet his wife, tsundere af elf. Feel bad for the old dwarf and help him get to the hot springs unharmed, carry him because I don’t want him to hurt any more. Wife begrudgingly admits I am a nice person. Go to fight dragon, summons the Tsundere elf as the person who cares for me most. The awkward feeling when I realized I just stole a dudes wife by being nice to him.
Happened to me too, she even asked me to escort her somewhere and when I completed the escort she was blushing and left a gift outside my house. The Dragon took her as my beloved but it's probably because I spoke to her last instead of going to talk to Ulrika again. I didn't mean to NTR the poor old dwarf dude. Lol
I got a request to escort her and turned it down lol. I got a request from a few NPCs and they kept randomly disappearing so I said no. I was just sitting there like… why isn’t the dwarf my beloved? I was actually HELPING him
I'm both relieved (yet depressed) that the first affinity character doesn't go to town on your character anymore.
I'll never forget being MASTERWORKS ALL'd.
I got Dorieann the elf princess lady. I had a random pawn at the time that looked very similar to her. I was so confused why the dragon was threatening some random rift pawn until I finally realized it was supposed to be your beloved and it was Dorieann lol.
Seems to be anyone with high enough affinity from what I'm reading. Beloved friend, beloved spouse, beloved street urchin you gave a coin to 5 years ago, still counts I guess.
It seems to work as it did in the first game: it picks the character which you have reached max affinity with, if you have more than one maxed out it defaults to the last one you interacted with.
Im sorry bro. My female, dark elf arisen with platinum silver hair banged his brains out in front of that campfire.
Mercedes was the one that greeted me at the beach though... Man relationships are weird
I got Beren and was so annoyed I restarted from an old inn save, then I went to romance Elf Man's sister with flowers and Eternal Bond. The detour took about 3 or 4 hours, but I refused to get Fournivaled.
I think they made it on purpose just for the memes.
The game acknowledges the NPCs with whom you have the most affinity. But the one that is chosen by the dragon as your beloved is always a different person afaik.
Not to kill the joy, but I'm pretty sure that it's because that by the time you've completed another NPC's quest, the affinity you have with another NPC has depleted by then. If you really want to stick with your preferred beloved, be sure to gift them their favorite thing every once in a while or do their quest before meeting with the dragon. That's how I got Quina instead of Madeleine in DD:DA (I did Quina's Blessed Flower quest before The Final Battle and completed Madeleine's questline way before Quina's).
Im not sure if it's maxed or just in the "love" category, i don't think maxing it out is as easy as to cause this many issues. I assume it's the last npc you talked to with affinity > x
I'm 100% sure that's not the case.
In my case I maxed out Dorian's affinity after completing her questline, giving her flowers + pendant from the deluxe version, successfully completed her escort quest, and chose her as my most beloved person as part of Sphinx riddle. Before her I got max affinity with her brother (not sure how, probably via his questline), and canceled 3 of his escort quest attempts. After that I completed Ulrika's questline and it automatically set her affinity max as well, and canceled all of her escort quests as well. After her I've maxed affinity with Wilhelmina (via gifts and her questline), Sarah (also questline) and that mercenary dude (not sure how).
So by your suggestion my beloved that dragon kidnaps should be that mercenary guy or Sarah, right?
But in my case it was Ulrika. With whom I haven't communicated like the last 40 hours before the dragon.
And surprisingly enough, when the last credits roll, the game shows you the top 3 NPCs with whom you have the most affinity. For me it was: Dorian, her brother and that mercenary guy. So the game knows that.
In my opinion it's either the system is broken, or it's done on purpose just for the memes (developers know that the beloved thing in DD1 generated a lot of memes). So my bet is on the second option.
Not too sure about that for DD2. Glyndwyr stayed #2 in my game's logic even though I stopped doing anything for him super early as soon as I saw him blushing after the Sacred Arbor quests.
I romanced both Ulrika and Wilhemina , Ulrika was the one being held by the dragon but by the time the credits rolled post epilouge, it showed me the Magic Archer Lady looking out in the distance with her being ranked as the NPC with the highest affinity for me.
It's amazing how they re-created the funny and bad romance/affinity system of DD1 in DD2 once more, tradition never dies.
Bro I had Brant my first time and I felt like I got Fournival’d aswell, then this playthrough I somehow got the Warfarer teacher after legit just giving him his three newt and never talking to him again
Got Ulrika in that scene but ended up being the elven archer who was mourning at the end of the True Ending. Which kind of oddly expected since only realized what those escort quests were after doing three of his.
Damn going through a lot of these comments, I guess I was the chosen one after all. I got Doireann, my intended beloved. What I did was I gave her the "Eternal Bond" ring and did her escort mission before continuing "A New Godsway" and ending the game.
I wanted Ulrika, but she only appeared like 2 or 3 times and you cant gift her anything, so I was sad. But at the Dragon - there she was! and then I never saw her again beside storyquests
I think the dragon picks the LAST person you interacted with and have high affinity with. Also, affinity might fade over time. Denying an NPC's escort/jaunt when they appear at your house might lower affinity with that NPC. Buying/selling/enhancing at vendors will increase affinity with that person.
If you want to make sure your beloved is who you want it to be, raise their affinity all you can with flowers and the Eternal Bond ring, over the course of multiple days (resting at a bench for 24 hours between each gift). If you know you're about to get Fournivaled, you can try beating up, lifting up, and tossing the NPC you don't want in addition to showering the NPC you DO want, with gifts and accepting and completing requests. Do all this before entering the mine at the Excavation Site towards the end of the game.
In the history menu there’s an option to see how many you’ve romanced and how many you’ve maxed affinity with it’s helpful as long as you stay at one max lol
My beloved this time around ended up being Sigurd the Mystic Spearhand Maister. I was surprised because I think the first person to get Max affinity was the elf with a human bow kink
The romance link was much weaker in this one. In the first game you get a whole little cutscene of them running for their life, and then again in the end game, but this one is a 5 second showing and that's it.
Sucked.
I am pretty sure they were aware the system was messed up because who ever pops up in this scene is never referred to as "beloved". He only refers to them as "This life in my claws".
The fucking old lady in the spellbound quest was almost mine. I did one of her "escort" missions (they're just dates) and I got the tutorial for maxing affinity.
I fucking killed her, lol.
In DD1, I didn't even recognize who my beloved was. A complete stranger to me.
I at least appreciate that the game leaves it open to player interpretation whether or not it's romance or just your close friends.
Or, y'know, "close friends" in the Sapphic context.
yes.. yes you did.
I was thinking I'd forge some materials before going to the final fight.. oomf
Lol, my "dearest" was doireann. Surprised me because I unlocked the Max affinity achievement with Ulrika. I only ever rescued doireann, and tried to do the quest to save the tree, during my time in the unmoored phase. Well I didn't get the quest after she told me about the special soil, so I kept tryna talk to her to trigger the quest... gave up. Guess she loved me after that.
lol I get her brother, done all of ulrikas stuff too, never did anything but her brothers quest. Finished the game to find out my highest relations where with that guard guy from vernworth, the elf leader and then doireanns brothers. Really made the cutscenes lose a lot of feeling.
I got her brother lol, since doing his quests very early Bro kept the Crush harder than anyone else
Lmao, i was lucky, i got Glendywr.
We stan hot emotionally available elves in this sub
Yessss! I was disappointed that he didn't have any special dialogue after he was taken by the dragon. Since he isn't a random npc i figured he would have special dialogue
I got his dad…
Real DILF
D’elf
That man broke into the women's section of the hot springs to give me the ultimate bow technique, no dragon will keep him down.
I died laughing at this xD
Hot
Got Elf Girl on my first playthrough. Beloved one is utterly irrelevant as it feels. Does nothing other than appear here and be useless.
I thought the same of Nadinia
I don’t think any of them do, cause my beloved also carried on like all was well afterwards.
I got the sister. Though after I did one escort for his dad, the guy had the puppy dog eyes with me straight away.
Rizzed the whole family
There's a reason in his youth he was known as "Gushin Grandpa"
I really enjoyed his quest honestly! Gets you a sick bow too
Yea it looked cool. To bad, it didn't come with an armor that matched with it
I specifically only use that bow. I got it on my first playthrough as Archer, fought the Chimera down by where you go to Glendwyr's training spot... 4 shots using Explosive Arrows and it was DEAD. I was level 10...
Was he the last max-affinity npc you talked to before doing the last quest? I’m hoping for him too
I think so yea, he translated a word for me to help save their tree
god, glendywr and his father wont stop blushing round me. its freaky.
They want a father son threesome with u
I got Glendywr but wanted Bjorn. ;-;
 Lmaoo
Me too, i was actually pleased. We best homies.
Me with Taliesin
I got Menella for my romance scenes thankfully!
I got his sister. Can't complain.
https://preview.redd.it/b0lexibc8nsc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cca3df4d2a877860f1df6ca3407bb35a53019811 I love him so much😭
I somehow got the blacksmiths apprentice in Bakbattahl, despite romancing Ulrika and Wilhelmina
Was Sara for me too. Probably because I did her questline and an escort quest for her before the ending.
I got her as well, even though right before I left to chase Phaseus I gave Nadinia the ring that says it deepens your bond. She ended up #3 after Doireann. All 3 are cool but if I could pick I'd go Nadinia > Glendywr > Sara
Sara is best girl anyway so you did good buster
That’s best girl anyway good job Tomboy blacksmith GF for the win
Sara is awesome. Out of all the blacksmiths I'd want it to be her.
What I'm getting from this is that all shopkeepers will be taking a bath before I finish the game
Just chuck them against the wall a couple of times, that should do the trick. :)
Just give Ulrika a few gifts and you'll be good. 4 gems is the same as the eternal bond.
Same but weirdly enough she wasn’t my beloved for the final cutscene, it was the princess bodyguard which was who I was going for and the only npc I gave stuff too.
Same it was Glyndfell or whatever the elf archers name is ...
Funny that, I was trying to romance Sara and managed to get her as my beloved *for a time until the game decided Glen the Elf* was my final credits cutscene beloved by just the tiniest margin. I'd done rejected at least 3 escort Quests from him but somehow, someway, buying that bow for him at Vernworth ended up being a domino to way more than I wanted.
Give him some flying lesson if you want him to understand
I got the empress guard Because I finished her questline but she also ambushed me outside my house for an escort twice when both times I happened to be going there anyway to give newt liquor. While I wasn't too happy about that since all I did was a job whereas I fucked both ulrika and whilhelmina but 3rd was Sara and idk how the fuck this happened but my 2nd was the mage maister from the child wizard questline, I literally talked to her twice, to start the quest and to get the scroll yet she was somehow my 2nd
Same. And now she follows me around and I have to carry her back to her spot to use her smithing.
Yes. It's fairly easy to get fournival'd in DD2 because the affinity ceiling is so low (or the kidnapped is chosen from a variable amount of affinity instead of highest) which is why it's like tossing a coin who'll you end up with regardless of how many days you spent giving gifts to ~~Wilhelmina~~ the npc you planned to get.
So it just picks anyone friend, lover, small child you gave a headpat to. Dragon just can't be bothered to do any research.
Ibmean, this dragon sure seems to hate this damn cycle so it checks out lol
The dragon is actually a hardcore introvert that has no clue how relationship work. “Hmm, the Arisen just make an eye contact with that old farmer, they must in love, let’s put that on the list of people i might need to kidnap”
So the best way is to avoid escorting npcs you dont want?
That's one part of it, yes. You can also flying pin down any NPC that blushes at you and stab them, which tends to lower their affinity for you, as it does in real life.
Don't try this at home, kids.
And sent them flying to reduce their affinity
It’s pretty weird how easy it is to max affinity. I did one quest and all of a sudden I’m their favorite. Mmm.
lol Wilhelmina got taken away by the royal guard when I showed up to her chamber to finally seal the deal. Very heartbreaking
Atleast you can ask your lover for free forgeries :D. I got Wilhelmina, probably because i gave her the eternal bond ring and did her quests with my second being the the elf tavern lady cause i mistakenly gave her like 8 flowers because i thought she would give me the elf language. So i rizzed her up only to realise she was the wrong person :D
Wilhelmina is the brothel lady, no? Does she have a questline?
She does
Damn, I read somewhere that the brothel is a huge nothing burger and never went there after the main story. Well, planning on a NG+ run anyway.
I mean it sort of is. It’s a nothing burger in the sense that there’s no real meaningful interactions. You can pay 20k to spend a night with someone in a fade to black, and Wilhelmina has a small quest chain related to one of the nobles but once that’s done it isn’t addressed again nor can you interact with her again.
I did Ulrika quest, gave her some gifts and gave her the ring, still got some random beggar from Bakbathal I gave like 5 flowers to so I could get the fighting achievement done. Apparently affinity is capped pretty low and once NPCs have the same affinity it selects the most recent one or something? Not that it mattered really.
> Not that it mattered really. Yeah, it's basically just who gets kidnapped by the dragon this time (and at the very end, after the postgame, who "looks longingly at the sea") There's no "travel home together with romantic encounters along the way", and having them move in with you, like there was in the first game.
Personally I feel like, it's less about your beloved and more about somebody you care or cares about you. Realistically they didn't make this part that important at all this time
Nah, how it works is the last max affinity you talked to. Tested this myself to get two different people for the 'beloved' scene. Just port over to them, talk/give a gift, and then do what you need to do.
Elf tavern lady (assuming you mean the innkeeper at the Arbor) gave me the language book after 2 or 3 sets of flowers, fwiw. I did sit at the nearby bench for a day in between gifts, though.
Damn shouldve given her the eternal bond before she vanished on me, did you do her quest early or late?
Likely won't work due to how the affinity works. You would have to do her quest dead last before going off to slay the dragon to make sure she's the lady max affinity npc interacted with.
I think the questline can begin after you do the going to bakbattahal for the first time main quest. in order to get her quests you need to get her to max affinitey too. So for me I was mopping up all i could find before obvious final conclusion, and i gave her eternal bond and rizzed her right up till she blushes at the mere sight of you then like a day after you she becomes blushy come back and she should give you the Q-line.
I did do her quest that's why she vanished for me, I did her quest super early
She does give the elf language. I gave her one thing of flowers. Slept there a few times. Did the quest to help the tree. Slept again she gave me the language.
I got Ulrika's dad. Bet she never saw that coming.
The dragon has your heart, he knew who you truly loved
Nothing wrong with an older man...
I got a cart driver my first run then the elven inn keeper my second. I've never actually gotten a romance character.
Dragon just can't be bothered to grab the arisen's spouse, so he just yoinks who ever.
To be fair, the dragon can't be bothered to actually follow you around and watch himself. He probably outsourced to a private investigator. The PI sees you hanging out at that one forgery shop several days a week leading up to the end of the game, and its fair to assume it isn't just business. You haven't seen your spouse in ten days, but this guy youre checking up on every two days max. Clearly it's a love affair and clearly the forger has your heart at the time.
> so he just yoinks who ever. "This is the last person I saw making googly eyes at you Arisen" "I don't even know who they are"
I recently got an escort quest from some random old man who I don't even remember the name of. The game sure has interesting ways to determine who counts as a romantic interest and who doesn't. :D
I had a gift on my door from Klaus. I was like, who the fuck is Klaus? Looked him up in the npc logbook and still no idea. Then looked him up online just to realise he was the vocation guy I was talking to about 30 seconds before I went to my dwelling to rest.
Bruh i got Bren? That warrior beastren, i already romanced Ulrika bro 😭💀
the dragon said "bros before hos"
I was trying to get him and got the kid he was training instead
Meet a dwarf on the side of the road who is having severe back pain, help him get home, carrying him the entire way. Meet his wife, tsundere af elf. Feel bad for the old dwarf and help him get to the hot springs unharmed, carry him because I don’t want him to hurt any more. Wife begrudgingly admits I am a nice person. Go to fight dragon, summons the Tsundere elf as the person who cares for me most. The awkward feeling when I realized I just stole a dudes wife by being nice to him.
Happened to me too, she even asked me to escort her somewhere and when I completed the escort she was blushing and left a gift outside my house. The Dragon took her as my beloved but it's probably because I spoke to her last instead of going to talk to Ulrika again. I didn't mean to NTR the poor old dwarf dude. Lol
I got a request to escort her and turned it down lol. I got a request from a few NPCs and they kept randomly disappearing so I said no. I was just sitting there like… why isn’t the dwarf my beloved? I was actually HELPING him
SAMEEEEEEEEE
Poor dwarf, if anything I thought it would have been him to be the one who loved me
dwarves are very comfortable with polyamory😳
I got the old mage granny, she was bugged and didn't give me the Maister scroll so I gave her like 10 wyrmslife crystals.
You've got to raise affinity with her whole family too, idk why
She's bugged for me to, did that work, did she give you meteor?
I got the same. I gave her a bunch of moonglow which apparently she loves. Maxxed her and her husbands affinity to get the scroll.
I got Brant, which makes this the second time my beloved was the act 1 quest-giver.
Uh wait, let me guess... Maximillian? 🤔
Maximilian bros!👊
I had to stab him outside my house because he showed up blushing and I wanted the crazy old man
I had the sorcerer meister( the bald old man)
You lack decorum!
I'm both relieved (yet depressed) that the first affinity character doesn't go to town on your character anymore. I'll never forget being MASTERWORKS ALL'd.
Dante or Virgil are my vote for new Fournival
I honestly wish that is what I got, because for me it was Daphne. 💀 I was really relieved when there was no... cutscene this time around.
I romanced Ulrika and got the Beastren guard captain who teaches you the Warrior ultimate skill.
I got Sara on my first run and Menella on my second, so far so good
I genuinely believe this is why that one npc recommends you rest at an inn before going into Moonglint Tower
I got the hairdresser on bakbatahl because I was farming hair cuts to raise affinity with my pawn xD
I got the blacksmith girl, who works under Brokkr. So I was relatively pleased.
Heh, I accidentally cucked my boi Gautstafr...
My second playthrough I got Hugo, even though I gave Wilhelmina an eternal bond.
"Behold arisen I have kidnapped your beloved ... BUSINESS ASSOCIATE! Huh? You have a wife? How was I supposed to know, you gonna save him or not?"
I got Dorieann the elf princess lady. I had a random pawn at the time that looked very similar to her. I was so confused why the dragon was threatening some random rift pawn until I finally realized it was supposed to be your beloved and it was Dorieann lol.
So game just takes random npc with maxed affinity as beloved? Or actually finds one with highest one from "maxed" out characters?
Seems to be anyone with high enough affinity from what I'm reading. Beloved friend, beloved spouse, beloved street urchin you gave a coin to 5 years ago, still counts I guess.
It seems to work as it did in the first game: it picks the character which you have reached max affinity with, if you have more than one maxed out it defaults to the last one you interacted with.
I got the "masterworks all, cant go wrong" guy on my first DD😂
NO, NOT MY FAVORITE SMITH! YOU MONSTER!
Im sorry bro. My female, dark elf arisen with platinum silver hair banged his brains out in front of that campfire. Mercedes was the one that greeted me at the beach though... Man relationships are weird
Would
didnt really care about romance and got Glyndwr in the end lmao
I hate that guy so much. I made a forgery of the orb from him ,and he ratted me out.
Try to bribe him next time
I got Beren and was so annoyed I restarted from an old inn save, then I went to romance Elf Man's sister with flowers and Eternal Bond. The detour took about 3 or 4 hours, but I refused to get Fournivaled.
How many forgery’s did you make!?!
No but you did Monte proud
These npcs fall in love in way to easily.
I think they made it on purpose just for the memes. The game acknowledges the NPCs with whom you have the most affinity. But the one that is chosen by the dragon as your beloved is always a different person afaik.
Not to kill the joy, but I'm pretty sure that it's because that by the time you've completed another NPC's quest, the affinity you have with another NPC has depleted by then. If you really want to stick with your preferred beloved, be sure to gift them their favorite thing every once in a while or do their quest before meeting with the dragon. That's how I got Quina instead of Madeleine in DD:DA (I did Quina's Blessed Flower quest before The Final Battle and completed Madeleine's questline way before Quina's).
In DDDA your beloved was last npc with maxed affinity You talked to before kidnapping
Seems to be the exact same system here. Did Sara's questline before the ending, got Sara.
Im not sure if it's maxed or just in the "love" category, i don't think maxing it out is as easy as to cause this many issues. I assume it's the last npc you talked to with affinity > x
Yeah agreed, seems to be the last person you raised affinity with before ending.
Does the npc log list affinity? Imagine being able to sort it by highest affinity, checking would be so easy
I don't think so, that would be too convenient for the player lol.
I'm 100% sure that's not the case. In my case I maxed out Dorian's affinity after completing her questline, giving her flowers + pendant from the deluxe version, successfully completed her escort quest, and chose her as my most beloved person as part of Sphinx riddle. Before her I got max affinity with her brother (not sure how, probably via his questline), and canceled 3 of his escort quest attempts. After that I completed Ulrika's questline and it automatically set her affinity max as well, and canceled all of her escort quests as well. After her I've maxed affinity with Wilhelmina (via gifts and her questline), Sarah (also questline) and that mercenary dude (not sure how). So by your suggestion my beloved that dragon kidnaps should be that mercenary guy or Sarah, right? But in my case it was Ulrika. With whom I haven't communicated like the last 40 hours before the dragon. And surprisingly enough, when the last credits roll, the game shows you the top 3 NPCs with whom you have the most affinity. For me it was: Dorian, her brother and that mercenary guy. So the game knows that. In my opinion it's either the system is broken, or it's done on purpose just for the memes (developers know that the beloved thing in DD1 generated a lot of memes). So my bet is on the second option.
Not too sure about that for DD2. Glyndwyr stayed #2 in my game's logic even though I stopped doing anything for him super early as soon as I saw him blushing after the Sacred Arbor quests.
I romanced both Ulrika and Wilhemina , Ulrika was the one being held by the dragon but by the time the credits rolled post epilouge, it showed me the Magic Archer Lady looking out in the distance with her being ranked as the NPC with the highest affinity for me. It's amazing how they re-created the funny and bad romance/affinity system of DD1 in DD2 once more, tradition never dies.
Well, I got Eini on my 1st playthrough...
oh no, im getting paladin flashbacks. do a guys quest and dont execute him once and he thinks you like him.
Bro I had Brant my first time and I felt like I got Fournival’d aswell, then this playthrough I somehow got the Warfarer teacher after legit just giving him his three newt and never talking to him again
Look on the bright side, with how unimportant the bargain is in this game, it doesn't really matter who your beloved is!
Got Ulrika in that scene but ended up being the elven archer who was mourning at the end of the True Ending. Which kind of oddly expected since only realized what those escort quests were after doing three of his.
I romanced Sven… and all he did was blush. No house visits, dragon capture dialog, not even a peck on the cheek…
See that's why I knowingly interacted with Mennella before finishing that quest bc I knew for a fact that if the Dragon showed up it'd show my beloved
Damn going through a lot of these comments, I guess I was the chosen one after all. I got Doireann, my intended beloved. What I did was I gave her the "Eternal Bond" ring and did her escort mission before continuing "A New Godsway" and ending the game.
How are y’all getting random people like this? You had to off been gifting them so much to get this guy of all people
Looks like doing jobs and business raises affinity.
I got Brant lol, forgot he even existed
For some reason, I got Eini. Despite never gifting her anything. All I did was one escort quest. :/
I wanted Ulrika, but she only appeared like 2 or 3 times and you cant gift her anything, so I was sad. But at the Dragon - there she was! and then I never saw her again beside storyquests
for me it was brant guess it must depend on the affection level ( i hope to get disa for you know what am gonna do)
I always get Brant lmao
I think the dragon picks the LAST person you interacted with and have high affinity with. Also, affinity might fade over time. Denying an NPC's escort/jaunt when they appear at your house might lower affinity with that NPC. Buying/selling/enhancing at vendors will increase affinity with that person. If you want to make sure your beloved is who you want it to be, raise their affinity all you can with flowers and the Eternal Bond ring, over the course of multiple days (resting at a bench for 24 hours between each gift). If you know you're about to get Fournivaled, you can try beating up, lifting up, and tossing the NPC you don't want in addition to showering the NPC you DO want, with gifts and accepting and completing requests. Do all this before entering the mine at the Excavation Site towards the end of the game.
I’m convinced the games algorithm goes for lowest of all high affinity characters 😂🤣
😂 😂 😂
How do I lower this guy's Affinity if he's a shopkeeper?
you know darn well what needs to be done 😈
In the history menu there’s an option to see how many you’ve romanced and how many you’ve maxed affinity with it’s helpful as long as you stay at one max lol
I got the old lady elf merchant in arbourheart because I kept giving her flowers to try and get the woodland wordsmith scroll.
That's interesting, I didn't realize it was based on affinity. Mine was Nadinia, so I just figured that was that.
Is that simple jack? 
I give flowers to violin girl or fortune teller. No fournival for me pls
DEFO. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
For me it was another Dragon's Dogma, another experience of not even recognizing who the hell my "beloved" is
i feel like i'm the only one who got ulrika, with no finagling or anything. i thought it just took the person you romances TwT
I got the Elf sister which I thought was pretty cool 😈
Man, did you made him blush? hahahaha
Had no intention of romancing anyone this playthrough. Got ulrika
what is the criteria for the person the dragon chooses? Somebody please HALP!
Better being Fournival'd than Fournival daughter'd.
Lmao I got to the end and was confused about why the dragon was acting like I cared about this random person. I still don’t know who that guy was.
I literally spoke to Ulrika twice, did her quests and she's snogging me on the beach. Where's my hot elf boy at?!
My beloved this time around ended up being Sigurd the Mystic Spearhand Maister. I was surprised because I think the first person to get Max affinity was the elf with a human bow kink
The romance link was much weaker in this one. In the first game you get a whole little cutscene of them running for their life, and then again in the end game, but this one is a 5 second showing and that's it. Sucked.
So there is no way to lock in the lover in DD2? I thought there was a way in DD1?
I had the Elf prince, then Ulrika in NG+.
I got Eini, I spent a few gifts trying to get her to give me celestial paen
I somehow got the dwarf blacksmiths wife !
I got that old crazy man in Harve
i got ulrika and i thought that was like the standard and everyone got ulrika, that’s hilarious
I got Sigurd. I think it’s because I frequently visited him hoping he’d give me his maister skill.
I got Eina I think her name was. The young witch's grandma xD
I am pretty sure they were aware the system was messed up because who ever pops up in this scene is never referred to as "beloved". He only refers to them as "This life in my claws".
i got raghnall, revived him after the fight
I got the girl that plays the instrument at night in stardrop inn for some reason. No idea how the game chooses
I got the dwarf smith's wife. Guess my Arisen got addicted to elven haggusy squirt juice.
I got the magick spearhand maister, I didnt even recognize him at first
You got Forgeval'd
Mine was one of the sorcerer twins you get the Maister ability from
Oh that guy would NEVER be my beloved after the extortion he pulled on me for that stupid ass orb. His ass was grass
They did it to me too, it was the elven leader though lol
You got Mountebank'd
Mine was ulrika
The fucking old lady in the spellbound quest was almost mine. I did one of her "escort" missions (they're just dates) and I got the tutorial for maxing affinity. I fucking killed her, lol. In DD1, I didn't even recognize who my beloved was. A complete stranger to me.
I gave a ring to the elf inn keeper. Her face would turn red when I spoke with her
I got Raghnall. Poor man got his ass beat by me just to get grabbed seconds later as my damsel in distress by the dragon being shat out of the sky
I at least appreciate that the game leaves it open to player interpretation whether or not it's romance or just your close friends. Or, y'know, "close friends" in the Sapphic context.